1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a water-based ink set for ink-jet recording, an ink-jet recording method and an ink-jet recording apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the recent years, a water-based ink set for ink-jet recording which includes a pigment black ink and a dye color ink is widely used. As a water-based cyan ink used in such an ink set, an ink is known which contains a cyan dye such as C. I. Acid Blue 74, C. I. Acid Blue 9, etc. The above-described cyan dye, however, does not have sufficient light resistance (light stability). For this reason, a copper phthalocyanine-based dye such as C. I. Direct Blue 86, C. I. Direct Blue 199, etc. is widely used in commercial-available water-based cyan inks. These general copper phthalocyanine-based dyes have an excellent light resistance as compared with magenta and yellow dyes, but have a problem such that the copper phthalocyanine-based dyes easily fade and/or discolor when contacting with ozone, which results in discoloration and optical density reduction in a recorded matter. For this reason, a copper phthalocyanine-based dye with higher or enhanced ozone resistance has been proposed.
The water-based ink set is required to have the excellent light resistance and ozone resistance of the dye cyan ink and further to have excellent jetting stability of the cyan dye ink as well as excellent non-aggregation property between the pigment black ink and the dye cyan ink. The term “non-aggregation property” means, for example, in an ink-jet recording apparatus any aggregation between the pigment black ink and the dye cyan ink does not occur even if the pigment black ink and the dye cyan ink are brought into contact upon performing wiping of a nozzle-formed surface in an ink-jet head with a wiper member.
In view of the above situation, an object of the present invention is to provide a water-based ink set for ink-jet recording including a pigment black ink and a dye cyan ink with excellent light resistance, ozone resistance and jetting stability of the dye cyan ink and also excellent non-aggregation property between the pigment black ink and the dye cyan ink.